Shmup Club November 2022 - Fire Shark

[MetalFRO]

Toaplan is a legendary developer at this point, having helped propel the shoot-em-up genre to new heights in the late 80's and early 90's. While they burned brightly for a few short years, they developed a number of highly influential titles. One of the hallmarks of Toaplan games is their level of challenge. Most of their games are considered among the most difficult in the genre, at least in terms of earlier games, prior to the shift toward manic and danmaku style. Toaplan has a couple games that stand above the rest, in terms of the sheer difficulty, however.

Upon its release in arcades, Toaplan's Same! Same! Same! immediately stood out in comparison to its predecessor, Hishouszame, which we knew in the West as Flying Shark. At the time, it could have been considered one of the most difficult shooter that had released up to that point. Thankfully, when the game came westward, the difficulty was tempered somewhat, so as not to turn players away. The renamed Fire Shark also got a home release on the Sega Megadrive and Genesis, and Toaplan themselves took the time to retool the game to balance it better. Join the RF Generation in November 2022 as we take on one of Toaplan's most infamous challenges with Fire Shark!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
Corkman
FauxMacho
louisG
Schlarp (via Discord)
Oops! All Vibes!) via Discord)
dtungsten
Schlarp (via Discord)
zoydo

[FauxMacho]

I'm in. I've done a full loop of the PS4 release and got the trophies already. The original arcade version is quite brutal. I can't even say it's difficult, they just made it to kill you, and often. I got one hot run where I got to stage 3 and 240,000 points, and I feel that's going to be tough for me to top.

I've started trying the US arcade version which has more generous item drops, and less power drain, but runs can still fall apart quickly.

The Genesis easy mode is quite a cakewalk until stage 7, so I've been practicing those last few stages, but deaths are almost as hard to recover from as in the arcade releases.

[zoydo]

Hey Guys.

This was a good reason to finally remove the shrink wrap of my Hishou Same! - collection.

I played some runs on the MD Version (jp). And made it to Stage 08 on Easy mode. My best on normal was Stage 3 until now. I guess i can do better, i remember i made it to Stage 07 or 08 on normal a few years ago, but i'm not sure if i can grind this out for this month. I almost forgot how brutal this game can be, even on easy. Once you're powered up it's got a nice flow, but as soon you're hit.....oh boy.





I also tried a few runs on the arcade version and hat some serious trouble to even beat the default hi-score. xD




Green Power-Ups are the worst enemy!

[MetalFRO]

Finally got my Easy 1st loop clear on the Genesis version! Unfortunately, it really ramps up in the 2nd loop, so I didn't last long, but at least I can finally say I've cleared the game on some difficulty. Not too shabby either, with a score of 3,519,350. On Normal, I've made it to stage 4, and ended up with a score of around 400K or thereabouts.

Welcome, zoydo! Yes, beating the default high score in the arcade mode is plenty difficult, and even stage 1 is pretty brutal. Once you get out of stage 1, the game really goes hard, and doesn't give you a moment's rest. The North American arcade version is slightly more forgiving, despite having more enemies, and often more bullets, because they don't fire at you at nearly Mach 1 speeds. You also get more power-ups in the Western arcade release, which is an interesting change. Either way, it will still kick your but 10 ways to Sunday.

[zoydo]

Nice, congrats on clearing the game!

I came close with my run on sunday (MD/US/easy), but something hit me in Stage 09, don't know if it was a sniper bullet from the off or a plane coming in from the bottom of the screen. I spent almost all of my lives learning the following checkpoint so i entered stage 10 massively underpowered and was wrecked immediately.

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Also played a run on normal that day:

[Corkman]

   I spent quite a bit of time with Fire Shark this month. I love the Genesis version of this game. It was the game that got me really into shmups.

 Even though, I've been a retro game enthusiast all my life, I never played too many shmups before this game. I didn't really buy them as a kid for the home systems and didn't play them at the arcade much back then. Beat 'em ups and fighting games the ones that got my quarters. As I started going to flea markets and buying up old games later, I bought Fire Shark after seeing a video review by Classic Game Room. It totally clicked with me and I've been a fan ever since. I think it clicked with me because the Genesis version defaults on Easy and I was able to to get a few decent runs where you are completely powered up and feel dominant (until you get sniped). Also the music is amazing!

  Anyway, here are my scores for the month. I was able to clear Easy on the Genesis as I had done in the past. It wasn't a great score since I played for survival and as warm up for Normal. I was really aiming to beat Normal this month since I never challenged myself to. It took many runs where I would get sniped by tank or clipped by a strange plane pattern but I was able to do it finally.

I played a few runs of the North American Fire Shark arcade and what a step up in difficulty that is. I didn't get very far as you can see by my score. I messed around with the Custom mode on the Hishou Same Same Same collection and found some good changes to make the Same x3 arcade mode much more like the Genesis version I love.

I'd recommend the Genesis/Mega Drive version on Easy to anyone who may want to get into classic shmups. You'll have fun feeling dominant for a bit and maybe make you think you can actually do this shmupping thing. Then you'll soon make a wrong move and die, but you'll think "If that one thing didn't happen" and you'll try again. Repeat. Repeat.

Thanks for having this game on the podcast! Toaplan forever!!

[zoydo]

Final score updates:

MD (jp/normal)


Arcade (us)


I guess the arcade version is too frustrating for me to keep me motivated, i definitely prefer the MD-Version of the game.
To me the game is a lot of fun, as long as i'm in the flow and got my weapons upgraded. But a wrong power-up (at a wrong time), sniper bullets or crashing planes that run into you can kill the mood very quickly.
The soundtrack is absolutely iconic and the main reason i keep coming back to the game!
Maybe someday i can bring up the patience and clear the first loop on easy...(which should be doable for me)